


Not Unscathed

by Emily (JustAround)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Not Beta Read, Scars, slight change in Hogwarts battle, werewolf attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 16:25:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7808860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAround/pseuds/Emily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lavender had survived the Battle of Hogwarts; she could survive this new challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Unscathed

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the the March Challenge at http://31daysoffandom.livejournal.com. I don't do a lot of non-crossover work, and after taking a long break from writing, put this to paper. Not beta-ed.

Once upon a time, Lavender Brown believed she would make it through the War unscathed.

Maybe it was because her time at Hogwarts had always been full of strange dark occurrences. Maybe it was because her naturally exuberant nature gave her more hope for the positive, more energy to hold onto any optimistic thought. Maybe it was because she was more naive than she had any business being. Or maybe it was because Professor Trelawney had never predicted otherwise. Whatever the reason, she had truly thought once the War was over, she could live a normal life.

Her hands shook as she slowly pushed aside the dark cover on her mirror, her breath catching in her throat as she stared at her own reflection.

Lavender had always been a pretty girl; she’d realized that almost as soon as she could talk. Other witches and wizards were always telling her parents what an adorable little girl she was, and once she got to an age when boys became interesting, she had been told enough by them to really believe it. And embrace it. Her bedroom had more hair accessories than most people would know what to do with; she always knew what products were good and bad, which ones worked the best for all types of hair. Her makeup collection was even more impressive. She knew she was an attractive girl and she lavishly embraced it.

Picking up her brush, she carefully started running it through her hair, wincing slightly as the bristles rubbed up against the three parallel scars that ran from the side of her cheekbone, across one eye, up her forehead, into the hairline. The locks of hair that once grew where the scars ran were absent; cursed wounds would never allow anything to grow there again. The bright red of the still healing scars stood out against her skin. Anyone who looked at her would see the scars first, would see the bald places on her head where hair would never grow again.

No one would ever again see the pretty girl she had once been.

She took a long, deep breath, and put the brush down. Part of her wanted to put the cover back over the mirror and throw herself onto her bed, hide away from the world that no longer wanted a scarred witch who also happened to be a newly infected werewolf.

But.

The trials were today. All of the witches, wizards, and werewolves they fought against were finally seeing justice for their part in the War. All of her classmates - that had lived - were going to be there, to testify about the events in the final battle. While her testimony wasn’t necessary, Lavender knew she needed to go. She needed the wizarding world to see what their war had caused. She needed to be brave, as brave as she had been when she had first decided to join Dumbledore’s Army, as brave as she had been when she joined the Battle of Hogwarts.

Even if she could no longer be a pretty girl, she could be a brave one. And while she had not made it through the War unscathed, she had made it. She owed all those that had given their lives to go to the trials and do her part. 

With practiced ease, Lavender carefully tied the bright red and gold hair ribbon through her hair, setting a bow perfectly in place above her left ear, showcasing the scars perfectly. She would prove to all of them that she was more than just a pretty girl, a scarred survivor, a werewolf. She had survived the last battle, had survived her fall down the stairs, had survived being attacked by Greyback.

She would survive this.


End file.
